21 February 2012

What should we expect from Stephen Strasburg in 2012?

No player is coming back from injury under more scrutiny this season than Stephen Strasburg, the young stud pitcher for the Washington Nationals who jumped into the league by storm in 2010 but then suffering a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and then having to undergo Tommy John surgery. So what should Nationals fans expect from him this season in his return?

If anybody is expecting Strasburg to come back and light baseball on fire, I feel that is pretty unrealistic. Considering he has not pitched a whole lot since the surgery, save for a few rehab starts late last season, slow start is pretty reasonable and nothing for Nats fans to worry about, even as they have high hopes for once with the team.

But as spring starts to turn into summer and we start to eat into the season, Nationals fans better hope Strasburg gets back to normal by then as he gets used to pitching in the majors again. Their pitching staff, even after the bold trade for Gio Gonzalez, is not very deep so they need Strasburg to return strong.

I personally think that Strasburg has a strong season back, he simply has too much talent and he flashed it when he debuted two seasons ago. Washington manager Davey Johnson is making the right move having an innings caps of 150-160 innings because while they would love to potentially contend in 2012, it is much more important that Strasburg is good to go in the next several seasons.